Mr. Poppers Penguins

In the city of Stillwater there was a man called Mr. Popper his wife Mrs. Popper and their children named Janie and Bill. The lived at 432 Proudfoot Avenue. Mr. Popper was a housepainter who wanted to travel all over the world.

Mr. Popper loved to read books about the artic. He even wrote a letter to Admiral Drake who was an explorer in the South Pole. One day while listening to the radio Mr. Popper heard Admiral Drake say hello to him on the radio. Mrs. Popper was so surprised and Mr. Popper was so excited because the Admiral said he would send him a surprise!

One day, a month later, the mailman brought a large wooden box. There was a penguin in it. Mr. Popper was very happy. He named the penguin Captain Cook.

Captain Cook was helpful around the house. He played with the children and everyone loved having him there.

After a while Mrs. Popper noticed Captain Cook wasn’t feeling too well. She checked his temperature and it was 104 degrees. The Poppers called the vetenarian and he said that penguins were not meant for this hot climate. There was nothing he could do. HE gave them some pills for Captain Cook and left. The Poppers were very upset to see Captain Cook ill. They did not know what to do. Mr. Popper’s heart was breaking, their life would be so dull without Captain Cook. Mr. Popper decided to write a letter to Dr. Smith at the aquarium. Two days later they received a letter back. Dr. Smith said that Captain Cook might be lonely. He said he would send another penguin to the Poppers. That is how Great came to live at 432 Proudfoot Avenue. Captain Cook did not die.

Now there were two penguins in the refrigerator, one standing up and one sitting under the ice box. Mr. Popper moved Captain Cook and Greta into the cellar. It was there that Greta laid her first egg. Three days later there was another egg and soon another. When the penguins hatched they were called Nelson, Columbus and Lucy. It wasn’t long before the family grew to twelve penguins.

The Poppers needed to make some extra money to feed all of the penguins. They decided to train the penguins to dance and perform and Mrs. Popper would play the piano. Mr. Popper saw and article in the paper saying that the owner of the Palace theatre was in town. The whole Popper family and the whole penguin family went down to see him. His name was Mr. Greenbaum.

It turned out that on that day the tightrope workers could not perform so Popper’s Performing Penguins went on instead. The audience loved them.

The Popper family and the penguins went on the road.

While they were in New York Mr. Popper mistakenly brought his penguins to the wrong theatre where there were seals performing. The seals and the penguins had a fight, caused a scene and Mr. Popper and the penguins were thrown in jail for a few weeks. Admiral Drake read about it in the newspaper and bailed them out.

Admiral Drake wanted to take the penguins to the North Pole to start a new race of penguins there. Meanwhile a Mr. Klien made the Poppers an offer to put the penguins in movies for $25,000.

Mr. Popper decided it would be best for the penguins to go with Admiral Drake. At the end of the story Mr. Popper went to the North Pole too.